The Team

Executive Board

Stéphane Richard, Ph.D., President & Founder

Dr Richard graduated in X-ray crystallography from the University Joseph Fourier (Grenoble, France). He then joined the team of Prof. Joseph P. Noel in the Structural Biology Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to investigate the biosynthesis of terpenoid natural products. As part of the Jack Skirball Chemical Biology and Proteomics Center of the Salk Institute, Dr Richard then focused his research on the chemo-enzymatic derivatization of natural products to develop novel therapeutically relevant compounds. After pursuing molecular engineering research in the field of biofuels at Sapphire Energy Inc., he then focused on working with French Scientific SMEs to develop and expand their business in the San Diego area and the US at large.

Estelle Benoit, Pharm.D. – Project Coordinator

Estelle Benoit is a pharmacist and she received the Pharm.D diploma from the faculty of Lille in France. She made one year of specialization in toxicology at the university René Descartes in Paris where she received the DEA diploma . She made researches at the oncogenetic laboratory of the Rene Huguenin Center in Saint-Cloud, the subject of her thesis was the expression analysis of genes encoding xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes as a marker to predict the response to tamoxifen therapy in breast cancer. Then she acquired 7 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, specialized in drug safety.
During the 3 last years she also acquired experiences in pharmacy and clinical pharmacy. As her husband is now part of Qualcomm, she and her family, moved to San Diego last year.

Florence Brunel, Ph.D. – Investigator, Research Chemistry at CovX, Inc.

Dr Brunel graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY under the supervision of Professor Arno F. Spatola, and with an engineering degree of the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Montpellier (Montpellier, France). She then joined the team of Professor Philip Dawson at the Scripps Research Institute, working mainly on studying the glycoprotein gp41 of the HIV virus, and using peptides to characterize different neutralizing antibodies that bind to it. In 2008, she joined Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. using her knowledge in peptides in their drug discovery research programs in the fields of diabetes and obesity. She is now scientist at CovX (Pfizer).

Erin Bomati, Ph.D. – Scientist at Illumina, Inc.

Dr. Bomati received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego where she conducted research on natural product biosynthesis under the supervision of Professor Joseph P. Noel. She then became a postdoctoral scientist at the CNRS in Marseille, France where she initiated the molecular evolution of laccases for applications in the textile industry. Returning to San Diego, Dr. Bomati became a postdoctoral scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she worked on the biochemical, spectroscopic, and structural characterization of marine fluorescent and bioluminescent proteins. Following a one year protein engineering endeavor at Strategic Enzyme Applications,Inc. Dr. Bomati joined Illumina, Inc. working in the fields of structural biology and protein design for the advancement of next-generation sequencing technologies.

Florence Tiraby – Chief Operating Officer at Invivogen, Inc.

Advisory board

Alan J. Lewis, Ph.D – Chairman & CEO at Medistem, Inc

Dr. Lewis most recently served as CEO at Ambit Biosciences, and President and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1 diabetes research worldwide. Prior to JDRF, Dr. Lewis was President and CEO of Novocell where he contributed significantly to achieving the Company’s leadership position in developing stem cell technologies for the treatment of diabetes. Previously, Dr. Lewis served as CEO and Director of Signal Pharmaceuticals, an early pioneer in kinase drug discovery, which he guided through a successful acquisition by Celgene in 2000 and went on to become President of the Signal Research Division at Celgene. Dr. Lewis previously held the position of Vice President of Research at Wyeth-Ayerst, where he spent 15 years leading research efforts in diabetes, CNS, cardiovascular, inflammatory, allergy and bone metabolism diseases. Dr. Lewis received a B.Sc. in Physiology and Biochemistry from Southampton University, a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Wales, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.

Catherine (Katia) Tachdjian, Ph.D. – Vice President Chemistry at Senomyx, Inc.

Dr. Catherine Tachdjian received her Ph.D in Chemistry in 1989 from the University of Paris Sud (France). She conducted her graduate research on the synthesis of beta-lactams at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France) under the supervision of Dr Gero and Professor Sir Derek Barton (Nobel Laureate). She then joined the team of Professor Sir Derek Barton at Texas A&M University for a four year postdoctoral appointment developing new radical processes. Since 1993, Dr. Tachdjian has worked as a medicinal/lead optimization chemist developing significant intellectual property and building/leading top-performing discovery chemistry teams in several biotech/pharmaceutical companies including Amylin, Tanabe and Incyte (formely Maxia Pharmaceutical). Dr. Tachdjian currently holds the position of Vice President of Chemistry at Senomyx Inc.

Alain Rolland, Ph.D. – Executive Vice President, Product Development at VICAL, Inc.

Alain Rolland is Executive Vice President, Product Development and Corporate Officer at Vical. Until 2002, he was Senior Vice President, Preclinical Research & Development, and Head of The Woodlands Center at Valentis. From 1993 to 1999 he was Director of Gene Delivery, then Vice President of Research at GeneMedicine. From 1989 to 1993, he was Head, Formulation Research at Galderma International in France. From 1987 to 1988, he was a scientist at the Advanced Drug Delivery Research Center of Ciba Geigy Pharmaceuticals in the UK.
Dr. Rolland received his Pharm.D. in 1981 and D.E.A. degree in Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics in 1983 from Rennes University (France). He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1987 from Rennes University after inventing, characterizing and developing a novel nanotechnology for anticancer drug targeting. He has published over 70 scientific articles and book chapters, edited three scientific books and he is the recipient of several awards including the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Fellowship. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Editorial Board member of the Journal of Controlled Release. He is a member of several scientific societies and holds more than 20 patents in the field of advanced drug delivery systems, drug/gene targeting and formulation.

Hervé Le Calvez, Ph.D. – President & CEO at ABBIOTEC, LLC.

Dr. Hervé Le Calvez serves as President & CEO at Abbiotec, LLC (San Diego, CA), a start-up company developing biological tools for the research market that he founded in 2007. Abbiotec has developed product lines of antibodies, peptides, proteins and kits to assist researchers at worldwide research institutes, universities and pharmaceutical companies. Hervé had previously occupied management and scientific positions at Abgent, Inc. and Active Motif, Inc. in San Diego and Carlsbad from 2000 to 2007. As Director Cell Biology and then Director Business Development, he was in charge of validation and market release of 2,500 catalog products, Marketing & Sales department, and distribution network. As Senior Scientist, he managed the Cell Biology product line in the R&D Department that originated top-seller kits, such as TransAM™, and multiple NIH-SBIR grants. Hervé has obtained his academic credentials as a research fellow at The Burnham Institute (La Jolla, CA) and Ph.D. student at a CNRS laboratory (Marseille, France). Hervé is the author of multiple peer-reviewed articles, review articles, and book chapters. He is currently a member of the reviewer panel for NIH/SBIR-STTR grants, ZRG1 SSS-1 study section: Cancer Diagnosis And Treatment.

Francois-Xavier Frapaise, M.D. – Chief Scientific Officer at Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Francois-Xavier Frapaise, M.D. joined Optimer Pharmaceuticals in February 2009 as Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Optimer, from 2006 to 2008, Dr. Frapaise served as the Chief Medical Officer at Ocera Therapeutics Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, and then served as President and CEO of Asphelia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held clinical-stage company. From 2001 to 2006, he was the Corporate Officer and Vice President of R&D at TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Frapaise’s career also included positions of Vice President Scientific Affairs at Abbott International Division, Head of Medical Affairs at Bayer Pharma Europe, Medical Director at Bayer Pharma France, Vice President of R&D at Delagrange (now part of Sanofi-Synthelabo), Head of Anti-thrombotics Strategic Marketing at Sanofi International, and Medical Director at Laboratoire Choay. His development and regulatory experience includes products in the anti-infective, gastroenterologic, anti-thrombotic, diabetes, and cardio-vascular areas. Dr. Frapaise holds an M.D. degree from Faculte de Medecine Rene Descartes in Paris, France, and is a European Institute for Business Administration (INSEAD) alumnus; he holds an academic position at the Loyola University Medical Center/ THrombosis Research Unit.

Lionel Bochurberg, Ph.D, JD, Esq. VP International Legal Operations at Next Wave

Lionel Bochurberg is the Vice President International Legal Operations of NextWave Broadband Inc. Amongst his different responsibilities, he manages NextWave’s international legal operations.
Lionel joined NextWave in 2007 and during his NextWave career to date, he served as the primary counsel for IPWireless, one of NextWave’s UK based subsidiaries responsible for all of the company’s legal matters and has been responsible for all legal efforts associated with several divestitures (including NextWave semiconductor patent portfolio) and M&A initiatives (in Latin America and in Europe) on behalf of NextWave.
Lionel is an attorney with over 18 years of experience advising clients about complex business transactions and international law. Having started his legal career in Paris, France, he subsequently moved to the U.S. under the category of “Alien of Extraordinary Ability,” and is now licensed under both the Paris bar and the California bar.
In France, Lionel was the founder of Mandel & Bochurberg, an international law firm with offices in Paris and London. Lionel then built and managed the legal department at Wavecom SA (now Sierra Wireless), a publicly listed international company. Subsequently, Lionel became the Vice President Human Resources and General Counsel at InfoVista SA, an international publicly listed software company Headquartered in both Herndon, VA, and Paris, France.
Lionel received his PhD in Comparative Copyright Law summa cum laude from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.